And thus we go through another book in Teana's tale. This is a very short tale, but very important as it adds another member to Gamma Team.

It has come to my attention that the last several chapters of Book 1 have mysteriously vanished. I can access them from my profile, but to others they've dropped off the grid. Anyone have any explanation for what might've caused this?

Birth by Sleep Update: "Keepers of the Arena". Iron Imprisoner 4… FUCK. YOU. That god-damned daemon laughed in the face of my Ragnarok-armed, constantly-slide-dodging, double-Curaga-equipped, Level-55 self, proceeding to burn my skin to a crisp with his Fire Spin, showing that I can't get away no matter how many times I Slide-Dash, and then pretty much spank me with that giant flaming cage of his while laughing evilly/maniacally in a way that I can't hear. …Okay, so I did get him down to his last HP bar before he finished me off. Level 60 and the just-purchased Vanish command may be enough, perhaps?

And when I tried "Keepers of the Arena" a second time at Level 56, I got killed in Round 4, before I could even reach I.I. 3.

DISCLAIMERS FOR PREVIOUS ELEMENTS CAN BE FOUND IN BOOK 0 AND BOOK 1.

DISCLAIMER FOR NEW ELEMENT: Star Wars is the creation of George Lucas.

-BOOK 1.5 START-

Galaxy SW

Outer Rim

Dosuun System

Four months after the Battle of Yavin

Space-time parted as the Starshot returned from the "not here" of trans-dimensional slipspace to the "here" of realspace. They deliberately came out at the outer edge of the star system, as although the people of this realm used a different method of FTL travel and likely wouldn't detect the slipspace rupture, the burst of Cherenkov radiation from the ship's thermonuclear armaments acted as a signal flare that would've instantly announced their presence if they came out of slipspace anywhere near an inhabited planet. They had opted to stay out of the war currently ravaging this galaxy, instead briefly popping in to pick up another team member called to their attention by the Starshot.

"So… what now?" Marie said.

In response, a series of arrows projected along the ceiling, and the five girls followed it. Through multiple winding corridors they went, until eventually reaching a deserted part of the ship that Teana had only been in once before. There was a new door here now, leading to a darkened room with a large raised circular platform in the middle. The symbols on it did not match any known Forerunner written language.

"This is new…" Teana muttered. "Mirage, what is this?"

"Unknown" the Device replied. "Scans show it was acquired during the Starshot's leave of absence between our arrival at Reach and the Battle of Installation 05. It is not of Forerunner origin. Scanning… my suspicion is confirmed: this is a Precursor artifact."

Teana gasped, as did Marie (on Marie & Mai's Earth, the Halo series exists as it does here). The Precursors… the ancient beings who preceded the Forerunners, who were capable of untold feats that boggled the minds of even the Forerunners; the ones who introduced the channeling of magic by sapient beings to the Milky Way, and used their abilities to mold galaxies to their whim.

"But… weren't all the Precursor artifacts destroyed when the Halos were fired?" Teana asked.

"This artifact was apparently stored inside the Onyx Shield World, safe from the Halo Array's effects."

"So… what does it do?" Shion asked.

In response, the artifact came online under the Starshot AI's control, as the ship's construct continued to follow long-buried instructions left by a powerfully precognitive Forerunner mage 80 years before the end of the Flood War, who had foreseen Teana's journeys and set things up accordingly. Portions of the artifact broke free, swirling and circling over and around it in ways that made the spectators' eyes hurt to watch, causing them to look away lest they be sick. A deep bass hum built up, rising in pitch until it was almost high. There were three flashes of light, and the sound of three bodies – live ones – hitting the ground. The artifact folded back in on itself to an inactive position, but then cracks spread across its surface, and the faint light that had been coming from its core before activation was now gone. It had, apparently, burned itself out performing its allotted task.

Two of the three unconscious figures were men clad in full-body white armor, with T-shaped visors. One of them had bits of dull blue on his knee-pads, upper arms, chestplate, and helmet; the other had several parts of his armor a faded orange. The third figure was a young girl, around 15, who was noticeably not human. She was wearing a reddish-brown skirt and high white leggings that led to knee-high brown boots. Above the waist, a sleeveless wrap-around shirt-cloth covered her modest chest, and leathery dark-red forearm guards ran from her elbows to her wrists. She had red skin, except for a few thin white patterns on her face. Instead of hair, from the top of her head grew white blue-striped head-tails that hung down on either side of her head, along with a shorter third one from the back of her head; a necklace of sorts hung off of the ones atop her head. Clipped to her waist was a 30-centimeter-long tube with various bits & bobs built into it, while the two others had dual pistols of unknown design in their holsters, and long black rifles magnetically attached to their backs.

All five of the girls recognized these newcomers, and immediately arranged for the trio to be taken to the med-bay.

-SCENE BREAK-

A groan sounded from the girl's throat as consciousness came to her. As far as she could tell, she was in a bed, and the beeping of a bio-monitor sounded to her left. Blue eyes cracked open, and Ahsoka Tano returned to the land of the living.

It didn't quite make sense. The last thing Ahsoka remembered, she and Captain Rex had been on Metellos, cleaning up a small Confederate outpost left behind after the Separatists' failed attack on Coruscant. And then things went to hell. Clone troopers started massacring Jedi… on order from Palpatine himself! Rex, who had long thought the old man was up to something, had promptly disobeyed the order and spirited Ahsoka away to safety. Unfortunately, his less-independent brethren had fired on their escape dropship, blowing it – along with Ahsoka and Rex – out of the sky.

And yet, here she lay in one piece, with nary a scratch on her. Had someone found her and taken her to some out-of-the-way hospital? Her thoughts were interrupted as the door opened, and through it stepped a human girl, not much older than herself, with blue eyes, long red hair and… despite herself, Ahsoka felt a little breast envy.

"You're awake, Miss Tano" she said.

"How do you know who I am?"

"The other two told us."

"Other two?"

"Rex and Cody, they call themselves"

"Oh. Wait, Commander Cody's here too?"

"Yeah. It's a long, long story, but the short of it is you're safe here."

"Who are you?"

"Warrant Officer Grade 4 Teana Lanstar, leader of Special-Ops Squad Gamma Team. You're aboard our ship, the Starshot. Colonel Holland is debriefing the Captain and the Commander. I'm in charge of filling you in."

Over the next several minutes, Teana explained to Ahsoka the various data regarding things: her and the other girls' decisions to start anew in new planes of existence; the Forerunners; a brief outline of the TSAB and of the UNSC-Covenant War; and the history of Ahsoka's galaxy.

The girl had nearly had a heart attack once she learned that Palpatine was the Sith Archlord Darth Sidious, playing all along to accomplish his plan to obliterate the Jedi Order and rule the galaxy with an iron fist. A plan that had succeeded… because her master had been manipulated into becoming Palpatine's Sith Apprentice. The entire High Council was dead, with Master Kenobi being the last to fall less than half a year before present… at the hands of the thing that had once been Anakin. Alderaan was smoking rubble, with Bail Organa among the hundreds of millions dead. And Anakin's son Luke was on the fast track to save the galaxy, while his sister Leia was currently completely ignorant of her lineage and her latent abilities… but that would change within four years from current time, when her old master would awaken his dormant light and sacrifice his life to destroy Palpatine/Sidious.

The other most incredible thing for Ahsoka was that she had indeed died, but some mysterious and extraordinary old-tech had literally brought her and the two Clone Commanders she knew best back from the dead… and had apparently destroyed itself in the process. She was a bit hesitant upon learning just what Commander Cody had done, but this had been quelled by Cody's revelation in the next room that he had known that Kenobi had survived on Utapau, and had deliberately worked to give Obi-Wan an opportunity to 'slip by' and escape, with the plan to follow and link up with and assist the General… and then a day later, Cody had stepped on a Separatist landmine, killing him instantly.

After the debriefing was done, Ahsoka, Rex, & Cody were escorted to a common room, and after much deliberation, they came to their decision: they would join the Starshot's crew and help them right wrongs in other realms, since things in their own galaxy were destined to be set right without their interference. Rex and Cody were both officially registered as UNSC Marine Corps Captains, and assigned to the ODSTs that were among the ship's armed-forces personnel. Meanwhile, due to her abilities, Ahsoka would be assigned to Gamma Team, as Gamma-6.

-SCENE BREAK-

Over the next week, the newcomers familiarized themselves with things, getting to know those who they needed to know, and getting accustomed to the weaponry and technology available to the Starshot. Thanks to scanning the troopers' weapons, the ship's auto-forge was able to begin construction of blaster rifles and blaster pistols. Ahsoka, meanwhile, helped Teana access some latent Force sensitivity – not currently enough to use most Jedi abilities, but enough to help guide her movements in combat. Besides her Mirage Longswords, Teana also used her newfound connection to the Force to create a Force-guided variant of something that Marie dubbed "gun kata", allowing the mysterious energy field to guide her shots and body movements in the midst of chaotic firefights (or at least, simulations of such), telling her how & when to move and shoot just as it now did for her blades.

At the moment, Teana and Ahsoka were in a sword sparring match, their blades with "safe mode" attachments. Teana was keeping Ahsoka on her toes, surprising the Togrutan teen with her natural swordsmanship. Teana's style was rather aggressive, much like her own, and bore some strong similarities for the Shien style of lightsaber combat, though there was also a touch of Makashi finesse. Between whirling blades, Ahsoka saw an opening. Unfortunately, in the heat of the moment, she forgot that this match was blades-only, and thus she instinctively blasted out with a Force Push. Teana dodged, and the blast, weakened by distance, was still enough to hit Shion and knock her over onto Marie.

Back when she had a toddler's body, Marie's older sister had a habit of hugging her a certain way. Now, with her face wedged between two large, round, squishy objects, she came to a conclusion that confirmed her earlier suspicion regarding the green-haired girl's assets:

"Huh. They are bigger than Sarah's…"

-SCENE BREAK-

So where are we heading next, Ship-Master?" Teana asked the white-armored Sangheili.

"We have already pinpointed the next realm that could use our assistance" Zhal responded. "It is another war-torn sector, which has recently seen several three-way wars and at least one four-way conflict. We are to seek out a race of psionic aliens, and then a group of human freedom fighters who act to undermine a corrupt, oppressive human government led by a totalitarian dictator."

"Fun"

"Captain," the navigations officer said, "trans-dimensional course has been set: dimension SC-29, 2504 AD, northeast sector of Milky Way Galaxy. Course locked for planet Shakuras."

"Very good, Ensign. Take us out when ready."

"Yes, sir. Slipspace drive coming online."

Off the Starshot's bow, space-time rippled and parted into a blue-tinged white rift, through which the destroyer flew, destined for another realm and another war.

-BOOK 1.5 END-

I think you can guess where we're headed next.

Again, anyone who can discover an explanation why a huge chunk of Book 1 has gone missing, please let me know and if I can fix it.